Perplexity Makes $200/Month Comet Free

JPMorgan Chase Charts Ambitious Course to Become First AI-Powered Megabank

JPMorgan Chase is rethinking its entire banking stack with AI at the center. Under the strategy dubbed “fully AI-powered megabank,” the bank is embedding large language models, automation, and proprietary AI agents across everything from fraud detection to operations. With a tech budget worth of $15-18 billion, JPMorgan aims not just incremental upgrades, but wholesale transformation — building “AI agents for every employee,” automating back-office workflows, and folding generative tools into core customer-facing and internal tasks.

Key Points:

1. LLM Suite: The portal to cross-model AI - JPMorgan’s LLM Suite is its central AI platform. It supports models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and others, giving employees access to generative AI tools for drafting, summarizing, research, internal presentations, etc. The goal is flexibility: choosing the right model for the right task while maintaining control and safety.

2. Automation, Efficiency & Scale - The bank is deploying AI agents to take over knowledge work, internal decks, reporting, risk monitoring, etc. For example, in one demo, the AI system assembled an investment banking presentation in ~30 seconds—a task that would have previously taken hours from analysts

3. Challenges & Long-Term Vision - Regulatory, ethical, security and privacy risks are top of mind—embedding AI deeply into financial systems comes with oversight burdens.

Conclusion

JPMorgan’s “fully AI-powered megabank” blueprint is one of the boldest yet in the finance sector — not merely using AI as a tool, but remaking the bank around it. If successful, it may shift expectations for how banking, trust, and financial services are delivered, potentially lowering costs, speeding up decision-making, and offering more personalized client experiences. But the stakes are high: missteps in model behavior, data management, bias, or regulatory compliance could carry outsized risk.

OpenAI Reaches $500 Billion Valuation After Employee Share Sale

OpenAI has secured a valuation of $500 billion following a secondary share sale that allowed current and former employees to liquidate stakes worth about $6.6 billion. That makes OpenAI the most valuable startup in the world, surpassing SpaceX’s previous private valuation.

Key Points:

1. Employee liquidity + selective selloff - Although OpenAI authorized up to $10.3 billion in shares for sale, only about $6.6 billion was sold, suggesting many employees chose to hold, betting on future upside.

2. Investor lineup & confidence - Investors in the transaction included SoftBank, Thrive Capital, MGX, and others. The jump from a $300B valuation earlier in 2025 signals strong investor appetite for AI bets.

3. Revenue growth underpins valuation - OpenAI reportedly earned $4.3 billion in revenue in the first half of 2025 — exceeding what it made in the entirety of 2024.

Conclusion

This gives OpenAI the capital confidence to scale more aggressively, offers employee liquidity (critical in an AI war for talent), and raises the bar for all AI startups. Still, at half a trillion dollars and growing revenue but not yet public, OpenAI now faces enormous pressure to execute and defend its future credibility.

Comet Now Free: Perplexity Opens Up Its AI-Native Browser to All Users

Perplexity has just transformed its flagship AI browser Comet — previously limited to $200/month “Max” subscribers — into a free, globally available product. The shift removes the barrier to entry for AI-enhanced browsing, equipping users with an assistant that doesn’t just search, but actively helps with web tasks, shopping, writing, and more.

Key Points:

1. Agentic browsing becomes accessible - Comet integrates Perplexity’s AI tools deeply into the browsing experience — letting the browser act like a personal assistant that “travels the web with you,” rather than being a passive UI layer.

2. Free version with rate limits + tiered upgrades - While the base Comet is now free, there will be usage constraints (e.g. rate limits) for non-paying users.

3. Challenge to Chrome & positioning as AI browser alternative - With Comet now freely distributed, Perplexity aims to compete head-on with Chromium-based browsers. The company promises to keep Comet free “forever.”

Conclusion

By making Comet free, Perplexity is placing a big bet: that offering agentic browsing without a paywall will push rapid adoption and disrupt incumbents. For users, the barrier to trying an AI-native browser just went away. For competitors, the message is clear — utility, not exclusivity, may win the browser of tomorrow.